"We're not that far apart," said Senate President Pro Tem John B. Larson, D-East Hartford. "This will provide them with a very cogent list from us that they can then take to their caucus."

The leaders refused to go into detail, but sources said the issues that divide the two chambers' Democrats include cuts in teachers' pensions, drug subsidies for the elderly and the general-assistance welfare program.

The Senate Democrats, who have 20 of that chamber's 36 seats, met most of the day in a closed caucus at the University of Hartford.

Balducci and House Majority Leader Robert F. Frankel, D-Stratford, have been meeting with small groups of House Democrats hoping to recruit votes among the 32 of their 87 members who have withheld their backing.

Frankel said that more than 10 of those holdouts were concerned primarily with the general-assistance program, and that he hoped to win them over with some refinements being made in the original proposal to set a nine-month limit on benefits to people considered "employable."

Also Thursday, the leaders of 12 state employee unions voted to accept a tentative contract with Weicker that will cut the 1992-93 budget by $150 million and avert the layoff of almost 3,200 workers whose jobs Weicker had threatened.

Almost immediately, though, a problem arose among fiscal conservatives in the House Democratic caucus who object to the way the $150 million will be saved -- by postponing a state payment to the employees' pension fund.

The agreement also calls for reductions of $121 million, $128 million and $120 million in three fiscal years through 1995-96.

"It is a deferral of contributions," Rep. Ronald L. Smoko, D-Hamden, said. "A lot of us have a problem with that."

It no Republicans vote for the contract, it would only take 12 defections among Democrats to kill it.

Only two weeks ago, before the labor talks began, Weicker comments at a press conference appeared to preclude the type of agreement he eventually accepted.

Putting off a pension-fund contribution is the same as borrowing, he said, because the payment has to be made later, and there's an interest cost to the state.

"It is ... the classic one-shot which is no savings to the state, indeed additional expenses to the state, the only benefit being you postpone" a cost, Weicker said April 8.

He also said that if that was all the unions were willing to give up, that was unacceptable because it would be "giving up nothing."

When Robert J. Krzys, the unions' chief negotiator, was asked how he changed Weicker's mind, he joked, "We didn't talk to Weicker."

Saranne P. Murray, the governor's negotiator, said the agreement is not the one-shot that Weicker criticized but a four-year program.

Weicker met with conservative House Democrats for about 45 minutes, discussing the labor agreement among a number of budget issues.

Rep. Shaun M. McNally, D-Norwich, said the governor "doesn't consider it a one-shot," but instead called it "a restructuring" of the state's payments.

Weicker declined to comment on the agreement Thursday afternoon, telling reporters he was still studying it.

Although the $150 million state-budget savings in 1992-93 is the key element for lawmakers, the agreement provides for a placement program that union leaders hope will allow 336 workers facing a July 1 layoff to obtain other government jobs.

Calling the program "ground-breaking," Krzys said workers who could transfer to new jobs without training would get first shot at any openings.

If a worker needed training, a special fund would pay for it. And if any workers could not be trained and transferred, they would be kept on the state's health insurance plan for six months.

Another feature of the contract promises the unions that Weicker will not try again to take away their bargaining rights over health insurance and pension issues.

The governor included such a proposal in his February budget message, but Democratic lawmakers rejected it, forcing the talks that just ended over how to achieve a $150 million savings in the 1992-93 budget